Various vending machines exist for dispensing prepaid credit cards, phone cards, and other types of wallet-sized cards to consumers. Such machines typically include a card selector, a credit card reader and/or a bill acceptor, and a card outlet. In use, a consumer selects a desired card with the selector and deposits the required funds via the bill acceptor or the credit card reader. Once the machine has confirmed receipt of the funds, a card dispenser housed within the machine dispenses the desired card to the consumer via the card outlet.
FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a card dispenser 100 configured in accordance with the prior art. The card dispenser 100 includes a card hopper 102 containing a plurality of cards 101, a card conveyor 104, a card reader 106, and a card outlet 108. In a typical vending machine application, the card dispenser 100 would be housed within the machine so only the card outlet 108 would be exposed. In operation, after a user has selected a card for purchase and deposited the required funds, the card conveyor 104 removes the bottom-most card 101 from the hopper 102 and moves the card forward past the card reader 106. As the card moves past the card reader 106, the card reader 106 reads information off of a magnetic stripe on the card. Such information can include a unique code for associating the card with a particular account. For example, if the card is a prepaid credit card, then the code can be associated with a specific credit card account. Similarly, if the card is a prepaid phone card, then the code can be associated with a specific long-distance account. After moving past the card reader 106, the card conveyor 104 pushes the card through the card outlet 108 to be picked up by the user.
One shortcoming of the prior art card dispenser 100 is that it can only dispense a single type of card. As a result, additional card dispensers are required if more than one type of card is to be dispensed from a particular vending machine. Adding additional card dispensers, however, unfavorably increases the cost, size, and weight of a vending machine. In addition, multiple card dispensers can increase the risk of card theft through the additional card outlets.